This post comes fresh off the news that Sony and Microsoft will be announcing the successors to the current gen of consoles at this year’s E3 in an effort to compete with Nintendo’s next console effort, the Wii U (source).

I’m a skeptical woman, both consoles are rumoured, even if they do come from a highly reputable source, but I’ll still refuse to believe either console’s’ existence until I have the actual, tangible product in my arms and the reality has set in that I now have no money or a social life thanks to them.

However, one can cross all of their fingers, toes and other crossable body parts that come June 2012, both will be confirmed by the Microsoft and Sony bigwigs themselves but until then I’ve put together a list of all of the things we should hope are included (or avoided) in the new next-gen platforms.

If ever there was a time for you to be freaking out about your lack of gift giving ability, that time would be now. There are only 5 days until Christmas and it’s inevitable that you get your last purchases in before it’s too late and you end up re-gifting that ugly (now moth-eaten) sweater that you got from your Aunt several years ago.

Below are some of my top gift picks for the gamers on your list. And if you have any suggestions for presents, feel free to leave them in the comments.

Reason number 4 to follow me ( @Jasmino924) on Twitter, after the fact that I host competitions, ReTweet epic gaming news and tweet out links to new posts on J Station X – I ‘m now finding you super-cheap deals on the games that you want for Christmas (as submitted by my lovely Twitter followers).

Below (after the break) are a list of the best deals I could find for the games that were submitted

Ever wondered what life would be like as a detective in Los Angeles during the 1940s?

Ok, that may not sound like a very riveting concept for a game and it even had me thinking “when has filling out paper work about missing people and petty theft ever been classed as interesting?” But I can say that LA Noire is going to be huge.

The game is on PS3 and Xbox 360, is being developed by Team Bondi and is being published by Rockstar Games, the people behind your favourite open-world shooters ; Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption.

Plus, not only that, but you don’t just roam the streets on a whim, looking for small-time criminals to arrest, you get to solve serious cases all by yourself. You can examine crime-scenes and interrogate suspects and witnesses so aggressively that you can see the characters’ lips quiver!

Oh, and all this uses near-perfect facial mo-cap and with this advanced bit of tech and the concept of rounding up murderers and locking away the key, it reminds me of that other fantastic PS3 title, Heavy Rain.

“I am Ezio Auditore da Firenze” – as if Mr ‘I’m too cool for school’s’ hack & slash, free-running ways weren’t enough to make you pick up a copy of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood this November, the game’s developer, Ubisoft Montreal, has only gone and added an epic new multiplayer mode to the game as well. Shocking, I know!

I recently got the super special chance to download the beta and get to see what all the ridiculous fuss was about over a little bit of climbing & killing (boy, was I wrong!) thanks to my £40 year subscription to PlayStation Plus.

Click ‘Read More‘ to find out why I think that the Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood Multiplayer beta is so awesome!

To answer the question in the title, yes, yes you can haz the new Single Player Trailer for Call of Duty Black Ops! It is my duty as a video game blogger, player, and also a human being to deliver this trailer to you, a loyal reader of J Station X. I have done everything in my power (ok, so I just copied & pasted) to bring you this trailer, which is, by the way, full of guns, shooting and wonderment!

Don’t hate on me for posting this, I love EA, despite my criticism of their ‘sequel cycle’ way of doing things, I’ll still remain a fan. As long as they release Mirror’s Edge 2, that is. My about page says that I get annoyed when the UK is the last to get things, specifically game releases but as long as we get them, I’m cool. Anyway, on to the point, EA love cars (well ,duh) and so when it comes to NFS they’re always going places to check out cars and watch cars race, listen to engines yadda, yadda but this time they’re bringing the cars (and the their game, Need For Speed Hot Pursuit) to us. Well more specifically, to you lucky folks in the US of A.

It’s at times like these when I asks myself “what’s better than controlling fictional characters with questionable sanity on PC?” The answer? Being able to control fictional characters with questionable sanity on consoles! EA have released this brand new trailer for The Sims 3, out already on PC, out on PS3 and Xbox 360 in October and I’m already planning out the lives of several characters, all of whom will need a whole load of therapy when I’m done with them! Hehe, that’s sounds wrong… Click read more to watch the trailer.